A/N: Okay, I felt bad about the lack of updates, so I didn't get up from my computer in between typing Chapter six and seven :)  Also, I'm leaving in an hour for a cruise…ahhh, to get away from all this blasted ice!  Anyway, enjoy this chapter and I hope it lasts you until next week!

Disclaimer: If I was JK Rowling, and I owned Draco, well, I wouldn't spend so much time on FF.net, getting my D/G fix from all the other wonderful authors on here, who also, coincidentally, don't own Harry Potter...Wow, I fit in!

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Mischief Mistletoe – Chapter Seven

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"So, Ginny, how was your weekend?"

Ginny would have thought Hermione was honestly as clueless as the question appeared if her voice hadn't squeaked on the word "Ginny."  She rolled her eyes, and decided to be grateful for small favors, like the fact that Ron and Harry were nowhere to be seen at breakfast.  "It was nice and relaxing.  What'd you do this weekend?"

Okay, so Ginny knew that her absence couldn't exactly have gone unnoticed.  But she had harbored a very itty-bitty, teeny-tiny hope that she could pass it off as a weekend spent studying in the library or an empty classroom.  She DID have OWLs this year, after all.

But no, Luck decided not to be on her side.  Dammit all to hell.

Ginny was in Double Charms with Slytherin when she realized how exactly how bad it could be, once Luck decided to desert someone.

"So Weasley, I hear you like to beg for more…"

The snide comment came from some idiotic Slytherin whose name, after six years in the same school, Ginny didn't even know.  Not that it mattered.

As Ginny found out the rest of the day, and on into the next few, she had been right when she'd resisted initiating the inevitable kiss on Friday and Saturday because she had known that Draco would spread all kind of nasty rumors about her. 

He had.

Ginny didn't know why that hurt so much.  Honestly, the fact that Ron wasn't even SPEAKING to her ought to hurt more than something she expected from a Slytherin git.

So, why wasn't that the major cause of her pain?  She KNEW Draco would be a git about their being stuck together for the weekend.  Hell, he could have made the first move, and he'd still be talking about her like this.

Ginny would tell herself this over the few days that followed their weekend, and she would have almost reached that point of actually believing that what he'd said didn't matter…and then she'd remember his smile.  She'd remember how he actually laughed in front of her.  And it would start hurting all over again.

So, knowing all this, she should have hexed him into the next millennium when she ran into him in an empty corridor on Thursday afternoon.

She should have.  And yet…all she could do was stare at him.  Lord, he was so…cute wasn't even the right word.  He was back to sneering, an expression that wasn't exactly endearing and attractive.

But his expression changed when he realized who he'd run into.  When he realized whose arms he'd grabbed onto to keep her from toppling over.  When he realized who was pressed up against his chest in a position that shouldn't have been familiar, but it was.

It softened, and Ginny couldn't even muster up a good hex, which she was well-known for doing, when he finally spoke to her, for the first time since their leaving the classroom.  Maybe because all he said was her name, "Ginny."

His voice…she knew he would hate it if she ever described it as soft.  But the deep, sexy way he said her name…it still managed to have a softness to it, something that no one would have ever connected to Draco.  Or that he would have let someone connect to him.

"Draco."  Her voice was guarded; she might have been dreaming every night about being back in his arms, but she was still wary after the taunts that had been following her all week.  She managed to ignore them, and didn't even really care about the teasing, seeing as how only Slytherin idiots actually believed Draco's rumors.  Well, Slytherin idiots and her brother…that idiot.  But it still hurt that Draco had said them to begin with, no matter how many times she told herself that it shouldn't hurt.

Her wary answer apparently brought Draco back to reality, to their position.  He slowly released her arms and stepped back…his hands gliding down her arms, almost in a caress, as he put some space between them.

"So…" Draco began.  Ginny would have sworn he was nervous, had he been anyone else.  She half expected him to start rocking back and forth on his heels and whistling as he looked about their lonely stone corridor.  But this was Draco…of course he wasn't nervous.  "You hear from your brothers since you got their gift?  They tell you anything more about it?"

"Yeah.  They owled me.  Asked me how their test run had gone.  Said the Mistletoe's main purpose was to…well, they asked me if all had gone as expected."  Lord, Ginny wanted to slap herself and call herself ten different kinds of idiot.  She had almost spouted out the reining charm on that damn, sorry excuse for a twig.  A charm that she could only hope Draco never heard about.

"And what did you tell them?"

Ginny leaned against the wall, trying to be casual.  Draco followed suit.  Lord, if it had been anyone but the two of them, Ginny would have sworn they were in a muggle teen show, a couple leaning casually against their lockers as they talked.

"Well…I am their assistant during the summer.  I DO get paid for helping make great products.  It does benefit me to help them develop the best possible gags for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes."

"You're going somewhere with this, right?" Draco asked, his sneer replaced by a smile, as though they joked like this on a regular basis.  As if. 

Don't get caught up in the problems with the moment, Ginny!  Just go with it!

For once, she liked her inner voice.  She grinned back at him.  "Well, I told them that it most definitely worked.  And that they should go ahead for the Christmas market."

"Wow…I'm surprised you didn't tell them to send that deranged twig straight to hell.  Although, I guess that was what the long explanation was for, about the best thing for the business."

Oh Lord, when he smiled at her like that…  It was just like in her dreams, when she imagined what it would be like if they ever actually got together.  When she thought about how good it could be between them.

Apparently Draco became uncomfortable with the silence.  He started fiddling with the front of his robe, his smile faded, and he broke the eye connection.  Ginny could only watch and wonder as he actually scuffed his toe against the stone floor.  Just like in the classroom.  Right before she had "attacked" him.

"Uh, Ginny…"

That was as far as he got.  Ginny kept waiting for the rest of what he was going to say, only he never said anything else.  Finally, she prompted him.  "Yes?"

"About all those things I said to your brother…I'msorryaboutsayingthatstuff."

Ginny actually had to lean closer to hear him.  She caught the fact that he had apologized, and she was pretty sure it was a first for him, but it was the beginning of the statement that caught her attention.  "Okay, putting aside that that was probably the first apology of your life…  Did you just say that those things you said—they were all to my brother?!"

Draco finally made eye contact again.  "Um, yeah, didn't he tell you?"

"Yeah—NO!  I had to hear about all that crap you made up about me from everyone else…well, from Slytherin-everyone-elses.  I thought you had said all that stuff to them…you know, to increase your already enlarged ego," Ginny finished with a smile.  Damn, but she suddenly felt so much better.  She had thought he was just being his nasty little git self to all those Slytherin idiots!

"Wait, why are you smiling?  You did hear about everything I said, right?"

"Oh please, Draco.  I'll admit to being upset when I heard them, because I thought you'd said them to be a nasty little git.  You know, purposely spreading rumors.  If I'd known you said them to my brother…hell's bells, you two always say things to each other to get a rise.  I wouldn't have expected anything less."

"Wait…can we back up for a second?"  The poor boy looked so confused.  It was cute.  Ginny had to smile.  "So…you're not mad.  You're not pissed because I told your brother all that stuff.  You rather…expected it?"

Ginny grinned at him as she walked past him, patting him on the shoulder.  Maybe, if she could leave at this exact moment, while he was still confused…  Well, maybe he would spend the rest of the day thinking about her.  Trying to figure her out.  It was sure as hell worth a shot!

She was all the way down the corridor, and she could tell he was still standing in the exact same spot by the lack of hearing a second pair of steps, when he called out, "So, Ginny, what exactly was the purpose of the Mistletoe?"

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A/N: Anaa basee to all of you awesome reviewers!!  PossesesRoguey, Peachula, Cybeleflame, rose petel, xi-swt-tearz-ix, lavieenrose78, evilryokojesseandfiend, Eddla, OCTFD, Ehlonna, Bunny / Sailer Moon, keeping-the-moon, Hplova4eva, RaeJenInc.2, SpiderSquirrel, bigreader, Jenalla, unperfection, Noire1, Ark, and pixieleech!

And no worries, I WILL eventually finish this story.  AFTER I get back from MIAMI!!!! :)